So where was I before I was rudely interrupted by a lot of random places. Oh yeah, Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays. I'll start at the beginning. Grab yourself a cup of tea, it could be a long one...
I managed to book myself onto a luxury catamaran for a cheap price as I was by myself and it was a last minute thing. I've never been sailing before so it was all a bit weird. After half an hour at sea I was already feely a bit seasick which surprised me as I didn't think I really got seasick, but after that I was fine for the rest of the trip. Sailing around sub tropical islands on a luxury boat is awesome. I can see why people with more cash than sense go and buy yachts. Unfortunately for us it was pretty overcast and rainy for the three days we were away. The afternoon we got back, the sun came out. So that was nice. We visited a place called Whitehaven Beach, one of the most beautiful in the world. Not quite as nice as Southend, but you can't have everything. There's not really much else to say as most of the trip involved sitting around a lot taking in the scenery, and the odd bit of snorkelling. And a fair bit of eating. Well worth the cash though.
Airlie Beach itself, although having no beach, has a really nice pool/lagoon area and a load of decent bars and clubs. It is small though, and being the Essex Boy I am, I was getting bored and wanted to move on to bigger things. So what followed was a bit strange. The next overnight stop on the Oz Experience bus was a cattle ranch in a place called Dingo, 2 hours inland and literally in the middle of nowhere. I had such a good night there that I decided to stay on a bit and ended up working there for two weeks. Let me explain a bit about this place first. Every single Oz Experience bus passes through Dingo, which means that there are at least two coaches (northbound and southbound) every other night. The actual night is probably the most fun I've had since I've been in Australia. It's a proper cattle ranch the size of Belgium, and the cowboys run the night which involves dressing up in silly clothes from a big fancy dress chest, a tug of war (north v south), a few drinking games, 90-odd people linedancing, dancing on the tables and lots of other stupid stuff. As the guys say, "Our neighbours are something like 25km away, so if they can here us we're having a bloody good time". The work I did was mainly crappy cleaning work, although I did get to go out into the bush with the cowboys and do some blokey work like cutting down trees and I got to go horseriding for the first time in my life. Fun but painful. The other big highlight was having a free helicopter ride. As a staff member, we got to fly out and meet one of the incoming buses. The dirt road from the highway to the ranch is about 2 miles long and you can see the dust for miles, then the buses lights, then eventually the bus as it thunders along the road, so it's pretty exciting. The helicopter does a big wide circle high above the bus, then drops right down to bus level behind the bus and slowly comes along side as the bus is speeding along. The look on people's faces as they realise there's a helicopter flying next to their window is something that words can't explain. It was pretty cool. Then, just for a laugh the helicopter speeds off in front, does a tight u-turn (there's no doors by the way, so you get a REALLY good view of the ground) and flies at ground level head-on towards the bus, only pulling up at the last minute. It's something I won't forget in a hurry and something else to add to my list of unique experiences. Also added to that list was standing on a platform helping teach linedancing to over 100 people. Not something I'd expected to be doing, so you'll just have to use your imagination for that one. I was going to stay a week, but ever since I got the cowboy stuff on (especially the hat), I seemed to attract a lot more female attention, so I decided to stay another week. Just for the cultural experience of course.
When I eventually left, I headed for a place called Great Kepple Island which was supposed to be beautiful. It really was, and there were no roads or tracks, just a fantastic beach and a pathway. The only problem was that the weather was crappy so you couldn't lie on the beach or snorkel, and there was pretty much no one on the island apart from a handful of us. After two days of beautiful, scenic boredom I decided to come back to civilisation. The next overnight stop was in a place called Bagara and when I got there they were looking for people to work there. Like a fool I offered to spend a week there so here I am. The best way I can describe Bagara is like an upmarket Clacton with a really nice beach. The place I'm working in is actually a resort, not a hostel, so I get to stay in a nice chalet with a kitchen, a swimming pool and even a TV (the first time I've had one since I've been in Oz). It's a really nice place, but duller than watching paint dry, so I'm out of here on Thursday in search of a bit of excitement.
I still can't really reply to individual emails at the moment as I'm still in 'extortionate-email-land' (a little known province of Queensland), and I'm on some weird internet kiosk thing that is taking me twice as long to use as usual. I will eventually though! I'm off to find some old people to talk to.
By the way, I have to get up at 4.45am to watch the England game, so be grateful. Come on England!
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